In 2001,
the world's only migratory Whooping
cranes were all in one flock. These birds migrated
between Texas and Canada. But what if something happened
to that flock? It could wipe out this endangered species. Experts began
a daring plan. They would start a new flock of Whooping
cranes in eastern
North America. The goal? To
establish 25 breeding pairs from 125 Whooping cranes released in the
Eastern Migratory
Flyway by 2020, introducing 18-20 or more chicks each year. No
whoopers had been in eastern North America for more than a century. Today,
a new flock of wild whoopers is back in the East, and slowly growing
bigger. How?

Special Whooping crane chicks
hatch in spring. Captive Whooping
cranes at a Wildlife Research center in Maryland laid some of
the eggs. Other eggs are brought there from Zoos or the International
Crane Foundation. A few are rescued from the wild.

At
the center, the chicks imprint on their own species: adult Whooping
cranes that live in the center. But these captive
cranes can't teach the new chicks to migrate like parent cranes
in the wild do. The captive cranes have never migrated.

Soon
the chicks learn to follow a tiny yellow airplane in "ground
school." The plane
is a
stand-in for real whooper parents. Next the chicks are
brought to Wisconsin for "flight school." They follow
the plane as they learn to fly faster, higher,
longer.

When
they are about 5 or 6 months old, the chicks will follow the
tiny
ultralight planes on their first migration. It's a long, risky
journey from Wisconsin to the flock's winter home in
Florida.

Another
part of the plan, is Direct
Autumn Release (DAR). Some chicks are
released to be near adult Whooping cranes in autumn. They will
learn the flock's migration route by following adults
on fall's journey south.

In
spring all these young cranes will return to Wisconsin without
any help.
They'll do this for the rest of their lives. Eventually
they will hatch their own chicks and teach them to migrate. The
new Eastern flock will grow!